[Sugar-devel] Fwd: [Bug 419240] [NEW] Need instructions on how to set up a cluster of computers so they collaborate.

[Bill Bogstad]

On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 3:25 PM, Benjamin M.
Schwartz<bmschwar at fas.harvard.edu> wrote:
> Caroline Meeks wrote:
>> The same sticks collaborate locally at the GPA.
>
> That's certainly very strange.  I still think it's more likely to be a
> software problem than a hardware problem.  The only relevant difference I
> can think of between GPA and a switch like this is that at GPA, there's a
> DHCP server handing out addresses.  On a simple switch with no internet
> connection, the computers have to adopt link-local IP addresses (169.*).
>
> One possibility is that, in the absence of a DHCP server, the computers
> are not correctly acquiring link-local addresses.  Bill can confirm this
> on Monday, I guess, by looking at the IP addresses shown in ifconfig in
> the no-internet configuration.

Ben, you got it exactly correct.  We had four machines running
Strawberry today connected
via an Ethernet hub.  I used ifconfig to check and none of them had an
IP address configure
on their ethernet interface.  We replaced the hub with a spare cable
modem router (built in
switch and dhcp server), rebooted the same machines and they all saw
each other using the dhcp provide IP address.

I would suggest closing this bug as it's not a Sugar bug.  It's a
Linux distribution problem
i.e. a SoaS bug.  I'll open a new bug at Launchpad for the problem.

Bill Bogstad